Getty Museum
The Suicide of Lucretia
Creator
Boucicaut MasterFrench Illuminator · 1390–1430
All works by this person →In the early 1400s, the Boucicaut Master was the leading master of manuscript illumination in Paris and one of the most influential artists working in the International style in northern Europe. The Boucicaut Master appears to have supervised a talented team of artists who produced manuscripts commissioned by the king of France, high-ranking aristocrats, and the wealthy bourgeoisie. He probably al
More on Getty ULAN- Date
- about 1413–1415
- Medium
- Tempera colors, gold leaf, gold paint, and ink
- Culture
- French
- Department
- Manuscripts
- Institution
- Getty Museum
The Roman noblewoman Lucretia plunges a knife into her breast as her husband, her father, and a man named Junius Brutus look on in horror. The tragedy of Lucretia began when Sextus, the son of the tyrannical Etruscan king of Rome and a member of the Tarquin family, raped her. For the ancient Romans, a woman who was raped was guilty of adultery, a crime punishable by death, even though she had not given herself willingly. After she was raped, Lucretia made her husband and father swear an oath of vengeance against the Tarquins and then killed herself in shame. Enraged by her death, Junius Brutus led a victorious rebellion against the Etruscan king and freed the Romans from Etruscan rule, marking the beginning of the Roman Republic.
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